The Concept of Love
by mlfleishman
Summary: Well I cant wait to see season three, so this is my version to keep us all occupied while we wait. Rated M for later chapters
1. In the Name of Love

The loud buzzer that sounded when a door was opening sounded across the dormitory that housed the white inmates.

Nichols was sitting on Red's bed with her feet bent up under her body, "No you didn't," she said in an astonished voice to Piper Chapman. Her mouth was wide open with a mixture of surprise and awe plastered all over her face. "You know, you two have the most fucked up relationship I've ever seen, and I keep a fuckin journal of everyone I fuck!"

Piper had a half grin on her face, even though no one could see it since her hands were covering her face, "I don't know what I was thinking, oh my god. The bitch was going to run, for god sakes she was leaving me... again! I panicked," and _yes I know that sounds completely self involved, she was just trying to cover her own ass, but how is it that every freaking time Alex Vause decides to cover her own ass, I get left in the dust._

Nikki chuckled and shook her head and her curls bounced around lightly, "If I didn't know that you two fuckers were absolutely meant to drive each other crazy for the rest of your damn lives, I would be concerned that there was about to be a war, you two are worse than junkies rolling over on each other to get your fix," she said as she stood up from the bed and walked the small distance to the entrance of the cubicle.

"Wait! Don't tell her it was me who turned her in," Piper said with a desperate look in her eyes. _She would never forgive me if I was the reason she landed back in this hell whole, for what is probably a very very long time... _

"Chapman... you didn't think this one through with that big brain of yours did you? How long do you have in this hell whole?" Nikki asked with her hands on her hips.

"About 8 more months," Piper answered with a quizzical look on her face, not really following where

the other woman was going with this.

"Vause is going to be in here for YEARS Piper, probably many years! What the hell did you think was going to happen!? Did you think she was going to get out just because you do?" she said in exasperation at how how dumb the blonde could be. _This bitch will probably be stupid enough to get herself trapped in here for the duration of Alex's sentence if she is left to make her own decisions. Lesbians man, fuckin doomed._

Piper stared at her completely silent, quite literally speechless, "Fuck you," she finally uttered. _So maybe I didn't think this all the way through, I was to busy thinking about saving her freaking life. _"She is safe... I'll figure the rest out when I get to that point," Piper said reassuring herself that while maybe she didn't think it through completely, it came from a good place and that would just have to be enough for Alex when the truth finally came out.

"Well you've got this all figured out," Nikki said sarcastically with a grin on her face, "I'm going to go see your little damsel in distress," she said. Life in this place is never boring for long, "I'll be sure to tell her where you are hiding at." She turned to walk away.

Piper watched her walk away cheerfully and returned her head to her hands. There was one plus, Alex was safe. The downfall is that when Alex finds out how she got to be so safe, there was a very big possibility that she was going to reinstate the vow of silence towards the blonde.

* * *

><p>Alex had been processed in right before dinner so she walked into the cafeteria in her orange D.O.C. jump suite. She scanned the room looking from the Latina girls serving the food, <em>damn Dia is soooo pregnant!, <em>then she saw the group of black people which had not really changed since the last time she was here (little did she know that their whole group had just gotten back to normal), and then the group she had been looking for. She smiled as she saw Nichols, her face dropped a little when she saw Red with her fucked up left side of her face, but then she resumed smiling because even though she was back in prison she was looking at a family... until she realized the one person she wanted to see wasn't there.

"Vause! Get your sexy ass over here!" Nikki says as she stands up from the table. Alex walks right to her and they wrap their arms around each other. Alex and Nikki are friends to the core, Alex really doesn't have room in her head for anyone but Piper romantically but the two fem lesbians just connect on a friend level that is unique for both of them.

When they pull apart they look at each other and Alex feels a slap to the head, "Nick! What the fuck was that for?" she asked as she rubbed her head. She looked at the red headed Russian, "Damn Red, you're rubbin off on her," she says as she bends down to hug the maternal figure of their group. Alex sat down at the table and turned to her right to look at Nikki, "So are you going to tell me why you hit me?" she asked the girl that was smiling stupidly at her.

Nikki rested her chin on her palms staring at the brunette girl, "Your an iddiot," she said simply and watched as Alex nodded at her in agreement. "What the hell are you doing here? You were free, did you miss the bitch that badly that you came back to prison for her?" she asked trying to act like she had no idea what was going on.

Alex just looked at her, "Get right to the point Nick," Alex said with a small smile. "It's a long story, and now I'll have plenty of time to tell you in the next few years. Speaking of the bitch," she said as she used air quotes for 'the bitch', "where is Piper?"

Nikki rolled her eyes, "Of course, none of us normal fuckers are enough for you. Your girlfriend is in her bunk, probably worrying herself to death about your safety. She got her transfer stopped because she knew your were in trouble on the outside, your two really amaze my white ass you know. You two can meddle with the best of them when you are trying to ruin each others lives in the name of love." _Fuck, maybe she won't think about it too much._

Red saw the flicker of *oops I shouldn't have said that* in her adopted daughters eyes but she wasn't sure if Alex was paying that much attention. "You should eat Alex," Red said in her incredibly Russian accent. _I'm a pretty tough bitch, I was a high up in a international drug cartel for gods sake but that Russian bitch gives me goosebumps_. "You will have plenty of time to talk with Chapman," the red head states with a half smile since her face was still considerably sore, "At the rate a which you two are going, you'll both be in here together a long time," she said and everyone at the table joined in the laughing, Lorna, Boo, the Yoga Hippie, the Nun, and Nichols.

* * *

><p>Two days later Alex had still not seen Piper, <em>there is not enough space in this prison for the two of us to not see each other in two days, shes got to be avoiding me.<em> But that notion was too hard for Alex to think about. _I had told her I was leaving town, she probably thinks I was leaving her. No wonder she is avoiding me, she has turned this into being about her in her head. The audacity she has amazes me sometimes._

She was sitting on the bottom bunk in the entrance cell when a C.O. walked into the room carrying four sets of khakis and another guard carrying four pillows, "Okay inmates, your getting assigned," and the female guard handed all four inmates wearing Orange their new clothes and their own pillow. "Let's go inmates, time to meet your new bunkies," the male guard said as he walked out to lead them to the their respective dorms, Alex went with him, and the three black inmates went with the female guard.

Alex walked into the familiar dorm and followed the guard to her cubical. She saw a familiar face in the cube directly to her left, "Red, we're neighbors!" she said with a very big smile, because that meant that her and Piper would be neighbors too. Her smile reached her eyes and she giggled _she cant hide from me much longer._


	2. Hope

Everyone knows the smell of a new book, the crispness you can feel as you flip through new pages, and if you only read every now and again then that smell probably makes you excited and starts to take your mind to somewhere far far away. But growing up Alex didn't have the pleasure of having new books too often, so the musty almost moldy type of smell that came from the pages of an old book comforted the brunette and gave her hope. HOPE, such a simple word, a word that fills your body and mind and sometimes in a place like this, having hope is a dangerous thing.

Even though Alex was fully aware that having hope isn't always the best of ideas, she couldn't help herself. The library was what she loved in this god forsaken prison, besides a certain blonde that she was waiting to catch since the other person seemed to be avoiding the brunette. Alex knew why she was avoiding her but she was just going to let it play out, and see if the other girl could actually tell the truth. The two of them, Alex and Piper or Piper and Alex, this is the game they played time and time again. The game never got boring, because when the two of them were together they were never boring.

Alex had been assigned work detail in the library. Of all the prison jobs, library duty was probably the easy life job, but for people who really loved books it wasn't just a job, it was almost like the one saving grace you could find to get you through the years of your life wasted. So Alex took her time putting the books back on their respective shelves, she pretended like she wasn't in prison for running a drug smuggling operation, just working in a normal library waiting for 5 o'clock so she could go home to the love of her life like their lives were supposed to turn out in some alternate universe. _That would never happen though, I don't live like that and I never had, in an alternate universe that might be my life but in this universe I could never be that vanilla and Piper had to except that, she would have to except me for who I was at my core._

Alex was ripped from her thoughts when arms wrapped around her waist and she felt a slight squeeze, almost unnoticeable. "Here I thought you were avoiding me," the tall brunette that was thick in all the right places let her body sink into the smaller blonde that she knew was standing behind her.

"And I thought you'd be half way to the mountains of India by now," Piper said with a hint of hurt in her voice. _You would be if I hadn't done something about it._

Alex heard the pang in the other girls voice. She turned around to look Piper in the eyes, her beautiful eyes, and stared longingly into the light blue eyes that look like a vast sky. The love of her life, and the only time they can manage to be happy together is in prison. _How fucked up is that. God she is so beautiful, I could get lost in her eyes for days. _As Alex looked at Piper it was like falling into the other girls soul, and a feeling bubbled up inside of Alex that she knew really well. And tears fell slowly from her eyes, a steady stream that didn't wrack her body but made her whimper silently. She laid her head on the shorter girls shoulder, "Piper I- I just wanted to stay alive... all I know is how to run."

Piper cupped her hand around the back of Alex's neck and kissed the top of her head sweetly. "One day you won't have to run... Maybe one day you'll realize that. One day we will be out of here and we can start over," she said cradling the girl against her body. Letting herself forgive Alex and for a few minutes, hoping for the miracle that Alex would forgive her.

* * *

><p>Red was sitting on her bed, contemplating everything that had happened recently. Getting beat by Vee, Vee escaping, the administration change going on with the higher ups, things were changing in the prison and her family had to be ready to change with them. Red was feeling old, especially as injured as she was.<p>

"'Ey moms," Nikki said as she came to check on the maternal figurehead of their tribe of sorts. In prison it wasn't about race, it was tribal, but tribes tended to fall within the same race, that is just how it played out. "How ya feel Red?" said the dusty haired girl as she collapsed onto Piper's bed. Lorna Morrello sat beside the other girl, "Yeah Red, how's the face? You think Chapman can make a lotion to take that pain away, huh?" the black headed girl asked with that deep Jersey accent.

"Oh my girls, it is a war wound, I must carry it with pride... my back was a different story, it is brought on by old age," she said with the Russian accent that really makes her sound more vicious and also wiser. "But my age is an issue we will discuss at a later time. Nikki I need you to do something for me," she said and motioned for her to lean in closer.

* * *

><p>Nikki stepped into the greenhouse with Lorna right behind her, she walked over to the table and turned around to her dark headed friend, "Man, Red is a genius sometimes," she said with a mischievous smile on her face. <em>I wish I had the brain to get rid off all the heroine I've been hiding. <em>

Lorna with her dark red lipstick cracked a smile, "Does she seem down to you? She seems down to me, she seems older," that thick accent goes hand in hand with her dark Italian looks and her dark red lipstick contrasted nicely with her black hair and pale skin tone.

Nikki nodded and looked around the floor like Red had asked her too, nothing seemed out of place, everything seemed dirty. _I don't get why that crazy Russian bitch wanted me to do this but I did it. It's dirty, just like a greenhouse should be. _"She did seem a little off," Nikki said and then cracked a smirk and started moving closer to Lorna with sexual vibes wafting off of her.

The two of them had called off their little lesbian entanglement because Lorna didn't want to cheat on her fiance anymore, but after Nikki had seen the exchange of words between her and the supposed 'FIANCE' in the visitation room, she had been waiting to reinstate their sexual relationship. So Nikki let her hands rest on Lorna's hips and pulled her close, "I know that you.. love him, but since he ain't treatin' you right, let me," she said as her voice got huskier than it already was as she whispered in Lorna's ear."

Lorna felt her body shutter as she felt Nikki's hot breath on her skin. Lorna was in prison for stalking and she knew Nikki was aware of her delusions about her fiance, and the fact that she was pretending not too made it hard for Lorna to resist the urges she felt for the other girl. She let out a little moan as the back of her legs hit the wooden table in the back of the little shack.

With nothing on the table it slid against the force of two bodies, so Nikki kept pushing until the table hit the back wall. Nikki let her hands wander down Lorna's legs and with one quick motion lifted the smaller girl up onto the table. Nikki leaned into the girls neck and let the tip of her tongue touch her bare skin.

Lorna gasped when she felt the moisture from the other girls tongue and let out a long guttural moan as Nikki's breath hit the wetness on her neck making her insides quiver. "Mmmmmm baby, I'm gonna make you come so hard," Nikki whispered into Lorna's ear. _I'm gonna make you come so hard you forget your little stalker obsession. _As Nikki pulled the girl's shirt over her head, Lorna wrapped her arms around the other's neck. Nikki slipped a finger into the slit and started a circular motion inside Lorna as she rocked against her finger letting out moans of pleasure.

As Nikki's motion got faster she slipped in two more fingers and thrust hard, each time curling her fingers to hit the girls g-spot. Her breathing quickened and she started letting out little screams, "Oh yes," and, "Faster baby, OH MY FUCKING GOD," and finally the last thrust had the girl screaming out as Nikki felt Lorna's insides tighten around her three fingers and Lorna rode out her orgasm until she shook and slumped into Nikki's arms.


	3. Fucked Up Shit

It's late at night, way past lights out, and the guards make their rounds through the dorm once every two hours. It's been dark for an hour or two and both Alex and Piper are painfully aware of how close they are, and how far apart. The wall between them felt like miles.

"Alex," Piper said barely above a whisper, she wasn't sure if she trusted her own voice at that moment with all the guilt she had been carrying around. It had been a week since Alex had walked back into prison and Piper wasn't handling the lying part as well as she thought she was going too.

"Yeah Pipes?" the brunette said in that husky voice filled with all sorts of sexual fluidity. She had been back for a week and they had picked up like nothing had changed. Piper acted like the choice between her and Larry had never happened, and Alex was trying really hard to not let it show that she knew it was Piper who had ratted her out. _I don't know how long I can keep this up, the more I touch her, the closer we get, the harder I want to hit her and lash out at her for putting me back in here. She has less than one fuckin year, I got seven! _

There was a long silence when Piper was desperately trying to figure out a way to say something, anything at all would do. Alex wouldn't forgive her for this. She was sure the other girl was going to shut her off like she had before. And no matter what Alex thought because of her actions in the past, there was no way Piper could deny that the love she felt was something she knew deep in her heart was only meant to come once in a lifetime. _I just hope that one time hasn't come and gone years ago._

Piper pulled herself up by her arms and peered over the wall separating the two women. Then without asking and without a second thought she practically rolled over the top and into Alex's arms. Alex let out a small giggle as she wrapped her arms firmly around Piper. "Well hey there sexy, drop on in, it's no problem," Alex says with a grin. She said the last part with a fake Russian accent imitating the Red head on the other side of the wall.

Piper laughed and snuggled into the other girls body trying to get as close as physically possible. She looked up at her through her blonde eyelashes. "Alex...," and she stopped herself, she would have this one last night before their little fish bowl blew up, "I'm really happy I didn't loose you again." And with that she kissed her on the cheek and fell asleep if only for an hour or so before she had to get in her own bed.

"Rise and shine kid," Nikki said as she jumped onto Alex's bed straddling the taller girl and shaking her. She was giggling, probably due to her recent sexcapades. "It's breakfast time, you know some fuckers think it's the most important meal of the day." Nikki rolled off of Alex so she could get up and ready for the day.

Piper peaked over the wall separating the other two girls and herself, "If you two don't shut up I'm going to tell Red," she scolded in a hushed voice. She had a really big smirk on her face though, _I don't know what I would do in this place without those two women. _

Nikki eased over to Piper's side of the cubicle, "Awe are you not a morning person," she said mockingly, she felt Alex's hand on her shoulder. Nikki had to tell somebody, besides Boo, and since the closest thing to a best friend she had was back, she needed some advice. _I got myself in a shit hole this time._

As we both walk down the hall its pretty quiet, it's so early that noone is up yet. "What the hell is goin on Nikki," Alex asked in questionable tone because the red head was being really secretive. _I need to tell her about how I feel about Piper and being back here, but I can;t take her serious when she is acting so weird._

"Vause, I'm fucked. I gotta show you this, but I don't know what the fuck I'm supposed to do now. Well I know what the fuck to do, but I don't think I can do it," Nikki said as they rounded the corner into the laundry room, nobody was here of course. Nikki bent down by the vent and took a deep breath, "Look," she said to the taller girl who was now bending down as well. She took the cover off and tossed Alex a big back of heroine.

"Whoa," Alex said surprised, "what the fuck have you been up to while I been gone. Are you insane?" she said in a hushed voice now as she realized the gravity of the situation. "I can't be around this, after what I'm in here for, I'll be locked up the rest of my good life!" the dark headed girl says in a hissed tone.

"I know, fuck, I know," Nikki says as she puts the cover back on over the whole in the wall and both women move over to start on the laundry for the day since Nikki was reassigned to the laundry room after everything went down. "What am I supposed to do Alex?"

Alex was silent for a few seconds, "Where did you get all of that? How much more is there?" she asked as she began to help Nikki sort through clothes, even though it was against the rules for inmates in different jobs to help each other. It was an incredibly stupid rule.

"Three bags like that," Nikki said looking around to make sure noone was coming in, "Stole it from Parker to make her ass crazy, and it worked like a charm, but now I got a whole bunch of shit just sitting around, fucking with my head," Nikki was acting like being that close was giving her a contact tweek.

"Well flush it," Alex said slapping her shoulder with a towel. Nikki just looked at her like she was crazy, "I can't," she heard the other girl say as she punched her arm in retaliation. There was a moment of silence, and then Alex decided to say what was on her mind. "Piper is the reason I'm back," she was really focused on the clothes bag she held in her hand.

Nikki started laughing and ran her hands through her thick curly hair, "Of course she is. You two would find a way to fuck with each other on opposite ends of the fucking world Vause." Nikki continued to chuckle under her breath as she shook her head in disbelief.

"It's not funny fucker, I don't know how to feel... I want to be mad as fuck and throw shit at here. She has no idea how long I'm here for," Alex said throwing the shirt she was holding down on the table and started pacing back and forth.

"She does now, when she told me I let her know real quick just exactly how fucking ignorant she was. College didn't think this all the way through," Nikki watched as Alex kept pacing.

"But then I think that this just makes us even, I ratted her out, she rats me out... and then I think that we can't live our lives getting back at each other... and then I just want to kiss her and never stop because she is the love of my life, and I'm back here safe with her." Alex stopped pacing and looked up at Nikki through her glasses, "What are we doing?"

Nikki laughed at the way Alex used the term 'we', even though she guessed they were both in different kinds of fucked up shit. "You know your gonna fucking take her back Vause, do your thing, be mad, and then get over it because you two are the real deal, your fucked up, but it's the real thing."


	4. Something Wicked This Way Comes

Piper had spent almost all day in the yard, running the track. She knew Alex wouldn't come run with her, which gave her all day to think, and she did some of her best thinking when she was jogging. _Just tell her, I can't hide it forever and she has been acting weird... oh god, what if she knows. _Piper didn't really know what to say, how do you tell the person you love that they are in prison because of you? Now she was realizing why Alex had lied to her in the beginning, but she can't go back, and if things are going to move forward and actually have a chance at surviving, she had to lay all the cards on the table.

Piper finished running and then walked around the yard for a few hours, she finally worked up the courage to go in and find Alex, so she rounded a corner in an empty part of the yard near the greenhouse. She wasn't sneaking around, but she also wasn't making any noise. She was wrapped up in her head, she wasn't even listening to the birds, which she loved to hear.

"What are we gonna do Alex," Piper heard this and froze in her tracks. She would know Nikki's voice anywhere, She could hear Alex talking but she couldn't make out the words, "What if we get caught? We are playing with fire here Vause, this isn't Cambodia, this is the D.O.C."

Piper's mouth was hanging, she didn't really know what she was hearing. But those two, talking about getting caught and being in Cambodia... couldn't be good. She couldn't be right, Alex wouldn't do this, she wouldn't be this stupid, not again.

"Nichols, calm the fuck down. I didn't say I would do it, I didn't say anything. We can't decide this in one day, this is our lives, if we get caught it's over... Piper will have moved on, it's already a long shot that she will wait the six years it's gonna take me to get out," Alex's voice carried that time. Piper turned around and left. She couldn't hear this, she had to get her head together.

* * *

><p>Piper was laying on her bed, Red was in their bunk as well but the two women were sitting in silence. Red was reading a book enjoying the silence that was rare and fleeting in the fish bowl of prison life. The Russian peered over her book to look at the blond on the other side of the room, "Alright blondie, lets here it," the thick Russian accent broke the silence. "You are never this quiet, and where is the tall one? I thought you two would be inseparable."<p>

Piper was shaken out of her daze, she had been thinking so hard that she zoned out and there wasn't a coherent thought anymore, "What?" Piper said because she realized somebody was talking to her but she hadn't heard a word she said. Red repeated herself and Piper let out air under her breath, "I don't know, her and Nikki were in the yard earlier," Piper said still kind of caught up in her own mind. "Can I ask you something?"

Red put down the book and nodded, giving Piper permission to ask whatever she wanted. Being the mother hen, she was used to the girls coming to her, but Piper had never really adopted the daughter role, maybe she was getting into the swing of things without constantly denying that this was her life now. "You girls would ask me, even if I said no," as she chuckled and waited.

Piper took a few deep breaths trying to figure out how to word her question without giving to much away. The Russian was not very forgiving when it came to drugs, and no matter how much trouble Nikki and Alex would get in with the law, the trouble they would get from Red would be worse. "I know it's been a long time since Miller died... but what would have happened if they caught an inmate importing drugs?"

Red was quiet, Miller was a spore subject for the Russian, one of the first mistakes she made on the way to her downward spiral from power. "The inmate," she said giving her a very suspicious look over the brim of her glasses, "would get more time, depending on what was involved. They would be sent down hill for a long time..."

"Would they be sent away, like to a different prison?" Piper asked and really tried to rain in the concern that she heard coming through in the tone of her voice. She averted her eyes when she heard two female voices laughing.

"Oh hey Pipes,"came the husky voice of the love of her life, but when Piper looked up into Alex's eyes she forgot what she was talking about. Alex had that effect on the blonde prisoner, she always had and more than likely always would, just like she had always been a drug smuggler and probably always would be... Piper didn't know why she ever expected anything different. She fell in love with a drug smuggler, and no matter how much she wanted something more from Alex... _I have to get over it... I'm in love with a criminal, that's who she is... hell I guess that's who I am too_. "Hey Al...," and Piper stood up, "Come for a walk with me," she grabbed the taller girls hand as she walked past her.

"It was nice to see you too," Nikki called out and she plopped down on Pipers bed and looked up at her maternal figure. Red looked at her, "Do you know what has gotten into that one?" Nikki shrugged, "Maybe college is cracking under the fucking pressure."

* * *

><p>Walking through the same halls day after day can get pretty boring, so Alex made up a game to make Piper feel better. Everyday that Piper started feeling depressed, or like the life in this place would never end Alex would pick a city, and that whole day they would walk around Litchfeild and pretend that they were walking around that city.<p>

"So do what do I owe the special pleasure of you actually acknowledging my existence?" Alex said as she let her hand caress Pipers arm. She let their hands linger together and then removed hers. The had both stopped walking and were just staring at each other. Alex was trying to see into Piper's soul, she used to be able to take one look at the blonde woman and get lost in feeling of clarity and peace, now Alex kept running into a wall right past the surface.

"Alex," Piper grabbed her hands... "Nepal... take me to Nepal for the day." Piper needed a few more minutes to work up the nerve to tell her the truth.

"Nepal?" Alex asked and then it registered in her head what Piper was talking about.

"Well... do you remember climbing Everest?" Alex asked as she smiled at the memory. It was a truly happy time in their lives, when the whole drug smuggling business was new and exciting to Piper. Right at the peak of Alex's power, when she had close friends she could trust. Before everything changed, and shit got real for the business, for the couple, for everything.

Piper let out a laugh that sounded like angel's music to Alex's ears. "I remember that whole day... walking around the streets trying to find a guide to take us up the mountain. I remember Luke, Jalie, and Cierra argued all the way up the mountain. Which one you would choose," Piper just stared at Alex for a few seconds.

There has to be something said for love like theirs. _People don't go through epic, long lost love stories for no reason... there has to be a reason, or nothing in the world makes sense. _"Alex..."

Alex knew it was coming and she felt her hands get clammy, her heart started racing, her anger boiling under the surface. _Remember Alex, you love this woman, get angry, and then let it go. _Alex tried to remind herself of this as the anticipation rose.

"I rolled over on you." Piper said looking at the floor, "you were leaving me, I couldn't trust you to take care of yourself, you always say we will be safe but you suck at making sure it's the truth Alex. You fucking suck at keeping us safe! I kept us safe and together."

"You kept us in prison! God Piper, could you be a little more selfish?" Alex exclaimed trying really hard to keep her voice lowered to not raise suspicion from the C.O.'s. She looked around to make sure she hadn't drawn any unwanted attention when she froze.

Piper being very curious why Alex had stopped speaking looked in the direction of her loves eyesight. What she saw wasn't the best thing that could have happened at that very moment, because a younger female was walking towards them, dressed in an orange jumpsuit.

"Well in 8 years, at least we can all take comfort in the fact that Piper fucking Chapman will never change," the words were coming out of the new girls mouth, but neither of the two other females were paying attention.

"What the fuck," Piper stopped talking when she saw Alex moving towards the shorter brunette.

"Jalie..." Alex engulfed the girl in a huge hug... _What is she doing here?_

"Jalie..." Piper said walking up to the both of them.

"I'm sorry Pipes, did I interrupt something?" the girl asked with the most mischievous smile plastered on her face, Jalie always did know how to make a situation between her and Alex so much worse.

"Don't you always?" Piper said getting into the girls face, putting on her tough prison woman act... that was starting to not be so much of an act anymore.

"Piper, stop," said Alex as she grabbed Piper's arm. "Leave her alone."

"You're protecting her?" Piper said with disbelief after everything that happened between the three of them.

"Well, she has never had me locked in prison for 7 years, unlike some people, and she unlike some people also tends to think I can do a few things right. Alex started to walk away from both of them.

"Well, it seems yall's story has gotten a lot more interesting since I've been gone," she said with a hint of a southern accent sneaking through. Piper didn't like the glint in Jalie's eyes, she didn't trust her, and the fact that she was in prison, didn't help.


	5. All Aboard The Crazy Train

It's been a week since Jalie's reappearance into Piper and Alex's lives, it's been a week since Alex had spoken to Piper, it's been a week since Piper had heard anything about drug smuggling. A week is along time when your stuck in a fish bowl.

Everything else around the prison kept spinning after the enormous fucking bombshell that dropped into their lives. Nikki has been loving the new drama that is unfolding between her favorite source of entertainment. It was lunch time and as always everyone in the family was sitting at one table. Nikki had integrated Jalie into the group quickly, she was probably thinking that she could get into Jalie's pants, little did she know Jalie was not the type of girl to be on bottom.

"Okay you fuckin carpet munchers, what the hell is goin on around here?" Nikki asks the three of us. We were eating our food but not talking, it had to be uncomfortable for the rest of the table. Piper looks at Nikki with this glare that screams 'drop it' but Nikki doesn't take the hint. "So let me guess, little southern belle here came in between you two on the outside, and that's why it's so fucking cold every time she walks in the room?" Nikki exchanges looks with all of us.

"Are you kidding me? Those two are fuckin insane over each other, I wouldn't try to touch either of em with a fuckin ten foot pole man," Jalie says to her new friend. She does look at Alex a little bit longer than Piper would have liked.

"That's because you learned your lesson the first time, cunt," Piper had said that with such disdain before she could even regain control of her temper. She gave Alex a look like she could tear her head off in front of everyone.

"Calm down Piper, that was nine years ago," Alex moves closer to Jalie, in case Piper really does loose her mind. _She has had a week to let Jalie fester under her skin... half of me wants to be happy to see my protege again, but I have a feeling its not a coincidence that she showed up right after I get sent back._

"Wait wait wait, are you telling me you tried to get with Alex? Oh man, I can't imagine what you did Chapman," Nikki says with a shit eating grin on her face, "You two are better than the damn Day's of Our Lives re-runs."

"You wanna know what this crazy ass bitch did? She fuckin tried to throw me off a damn mountain!" Jalie screamed as she slammed her fists into the table.

"Hey! Calm down!" Heeley yelled as he moved closer to the table. Piper hung her head down so she didn't attract unwanted attention from her Counselor. But she cut her eyes at Jalie the whole time, "You were strapped into the rope, your weren't gonna die..."

"Damn college, I guess all the crazy shit you've done in here ain't really all that different than the crazy shit you did outside." Nikki elbowed her in the shoulder with a goofy grin on her face.

Alex kinda let out a little giggle, "Piper whether she was strapped in or not, being pushed off the tallest mountain in the world would make anyone piss themselves.. you should be nice to her, she's just a kid," but Jalie really didn't like being called a kid. "Yo, I ain't no kid anymore... When I get out of here, I get your job Vause," she has a evil mischievous grin that apparently only Piper noticed.

Alex looked at her and there was almost a small hint of pride in her eyes, "Movin on up in the world huh? Just be careful J, my job comes with years worth of time when you get caught." Alex stood up and started to walk away, _I raised this girl into who she is, I never thought about how I was destroying her life, how I was dooming her to my fate... When the fuck did I develop a conscience?_

* * *

><p>Sitting in the chapel with her head in her hands. Piper was trying to escape the outside world, trying to calm her head. She knew Nikki was probably right about her actions. She had almost forgotten that particular part of their Everest trip. It's like being back with Alex kind of erased the bad memories... <em>But damn, I really did almost kill her, I am a criminal in almost every sense of the word. Drugs, assault, extortion, snitching... I can't continue to tell myself I don't belong here, because I definitely do.<em>

The door opened but Piper didn't look up, she assumed that whoever was coming in would just turn around when they noticed her having a serious 'come to Jesus' moment. But the person was Alex, and she didn't turn around. She came over to the chapel stage and sat down next to her blonde lover, "Piper... are you okay?"

"She makes me loose my mind Alex... I can't stand her..." Piper looked up into Alex's eyes, "You know I thought we dealt with our bad past... and then she blows in here randomly at a horrible fucking time for us, and brings back a shit storm of memories."

Alex knelt down in front of Piper, taking the smaller hands into her own. Alex brought Piper's hands to her mouth and kissed them gently. Trying to show Piper that there was no one in this world or any other word that she needed to worry about. "She's here, but there is nothing to worry about. I have a feeling she won't be here long."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Piper looked at Alex with a very confused expression, "you're not gonna kill her are you?"

Alex laughed, that special very loud laugh that she does, "No I'm not going to kill her, I'd like to leave this hell hole one day. But it can't be a coincidence that she is here, not right after I snitch on the cartel, and that crack about my job. What is this Star Wars? The apprentice has to kill the master... it's kind of sick," she told Piper.

_Who the fuck jokes about star wars at a time like this? _Piper laughed but as she slowed her laughter she got serious again, "Alex... I'm so sorry I ruined what you had going on outside, I just couldn't stand the thought of never hearing from you again. Because that's what would have happened, you would have ran, and I would have never been able to find you. At least here I know where you are, how you are."

* * *

><p>With Jalie back in the picture Alex didn't know if it was safe to move the drugs, or even talk about them. They were in a safe place for now, nobody in the prison checked vents, I mean who would think to do something like that? But the fact there were three kilos of heroine just sitting there, being ignored was causing a war to rage inside of Alex.<p>

On one hand, the drug dealer in her was itching to just sell it, to get that high that only comes from risking everything just to make money, to look into the eyes of addicts as she handed them a baggie full of all their hopes and dreams. On the other hand, the addict that she had become after Piper left could feel her veins practically catching on fire with the thought of all of that dope just sitting there, waiting to be burned down and shot up. The addict hallucinated feeling the heroine burning through her veins as it circulated its way through her body.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by Jalie. Alex was sitting on the floor in the library, she had to start coming her more to deter herself not to touch the drugs. "I know that look," and Alex smiled at the southern drawl the other girl wasn't even trying to hide anymore.

"What look?" Alex knew of course what she was talking about, but playing dumb worked... sometimes, right?

"How the hell did you manage to smuggle something in the prison?" the younger girl wasn't accusing, she was admiring. Jalie had always labeled Alex as a hero, even if by all sane reasoning she was no where near that. The girl had a fucked up sense of right and wrong.

"You don't know what your talking about," Alex stood up, because someone mentioning the drugs made her antsy.

"Don't fucking lie to me Alex Vause, I was there, after she left you. After she fucking destroyed you, I was there, and I know that look you get in your eyes. It's the same look every junkie has, and baby you got it bad," Jalie didn't know anything concrete, I mean how could she?

Alex knew it was no use, the younger girl knew her too well, hell she was practically a clone of herself from 15 years ago. "Leave it alone Jalie, do what you came here for," she had hoped that saying that would have sparked something in the girl that would have given her just a little to go on as to why she was here,in this prison, with these people, at this exact time, but the younger girl had an amazing poker face, "serve your time, and get out."

The two women were interrupted by Nikki, sauntering over to Piper, not really paying attention to the fact that she wasn't alone in the library, "Hey Vause, we need to do something..." but as the red head finally noticed another body present, she tapered her comments off.

Jalie seized that opportunity to call the females bluff, "Oh don't worry, Alex filled me in," and when confusion and anger spread across Nikki's face Jalie realized she had been right all along, _That little bitch lied to me... maybe if Alex could be a mule I wouldn't have to..._ but when Jalie heard Nikki's harsh whisper to Alex, "What the fuck man, you can't go blabbing..."

Alex lunged at Nikki to cover her mouth but it was too late, that act alone gave them away, _Fuck_ Alex was screaming at herself. She looked over at Jalie who had a triumphant grin on her face. "Wipe that fucking smile off your face, we don't know what we are going to do yet," Alex trying to take control of the situation was failing miserably.

"I think you know exactly what your going to do, the question is when are you going to grow the balls, or did Piper castrate you when you got back together?" Jalie knew that insulting her would draw out Alex's competitive side.

Nikki was trying desperately to stifle the laugh that was bubbling over inside of her, "How do you get yourself in these situations?" she asked Alex. How does she seem to wedge herself between a rock and hard place at ever turn?

Alex chuckled under her breath and gripped the sides of her face with both hands, "I don't know Nick, it's tragically out of my control," and she turned her attention back to Jalie, "What makes you think your involved in this J?"

"Because who else is gonna help you? Uptight Barbie?" and when Alex's answer was to stare down the floor tiles, Jalie knew she was right, "Exactly, you need me."

"Why's that? From where I'm at, you're a liability," she says to the younger girl, she knew that if she were to distribute this H that she could use the girl, but need her? Alex Vause doesn't need anyone to help her move drugs, she is the moving queen, and anything Jalie knew she had learned from Alex so what made this girl think she NEEDED her?

"What would Piper do if she caught you? She would flip so fast you'd get whiplash," Jalie made a very good point, Piper would most definitely have a cow if she found out what me and Nikki were up too.

"I have a question... when the fuck did we decide that we were selling it? Forget college, Red would have us skinned alive, and I already got my one strike, the next one and I'm out... I don't want to be out, that woman is my only family," Nikki also made a valid point, what makes Jalie think she gets to come in here and dominate the narrative? We had this completely under control before she got here... not so safely hidden in a vent where anyone could just stumble upon it... yeah that was such a great plan.

"See, you both have shit to loose, and everything to gain," Jalie had a glint of some emotion Alex couldn't quite put her finger on, and that was more than a little scary. "If I do this, Alex your hands appear to be clean for Piper, and Nikki gets plausible deniability with Red."

"What do you get Jalie? You've insulted my balls, given me every reason to trust you... but you have no stake it this, why do you want this?" Alex was finally getting around to asking the right questions, but it wasn't time for Jalie to divulge such sensitive information. But she could hint at it.

"I get to go back to the cartel and tell them they have people on the inside," and maybe that would click in Alex's brain without Jalie having to come out and tell her she was here for her. "Money is the only language Kubra speaks Vause... get on board with this."


End file.
